For 12 years Sport has been a happy, active, healthy dog. Playing with his family and friends, running agility and playing tricks on anyone he chose. Then, late last summer it seemed to me he was not urinating the way he should. I mentioned it to the vet and she put him on some herbs to help. But, one morning, he didn't make it outside. He urinated blood in he hall. Thank God he did or I would not have known. We contacted our two vets immediately, even though it was Sunday, and he was put on antibiotic for infection. A urine culture was done early the next week. We had an ultrasound of his bladder and all looked well, but he urinated blood again. BPH ( Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia) was the diagnosis. Treatment, neutering, so we had that done in November. Still he urinated blood twice. Meantime we did another ultrasound and found nothing. Then a more detailed one and it looked like the prostate might be abscessed. Another surgery and TCC reared it's ugly head. And not only that. A lymph node was hanging in his abdomen that the vet could not remove because it is wrapped in blood vessels. It is hard with liquid at the center. He drained it and packed it to try to get it to heal, took tissue samples along with fluid samples and sent them off for biopsy. Result: TCC.

TCC is insidious. By the time it is diagnosed it has metastasize so the best that can be hoped for is giving quality of life for the time left.

After much researching, we started him on Proxicam and Lukeran and I contacted Purdue.

We set up an appointment with Dr. Knapp of Purdue for the following Monday. After hours of tests and evaluation, they changed his medicines to Proxicam and Vinblastine which will, we hope, shrink the tumor. It is wrapped around the neck of his bladder, constricting the urethra, slowing the stream and making it difficult to urinate. Up side is he leaks when sleeping or resting, so the damage to his kidneys isn't quite as bad as it could be. Any time urine backs up into the kidneys for any length of time there is damage but, so far, his is mild.

Now we battle with his appetite.

The purpose of this web site is to share any and all knowledge we glean from this experience and hopefully add to the arsenal of knowledge Purdue and other teaching VMH's have accumulated.

We sent some of Sport's blood to be genetically tested. If this cancer is genetic, treating it at that level will make things better for pets and people. If early detection and treatment can be found for dogs, it will help people as well.